The Binnacle

Nevada Yacht Club Blog & Newsletter

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."Mark Twain

Report from Olivia & ErikFamily Tides - Chrysler 22This is quoted with permission from their facebook post in the NYC Group page.

What a day! Erik and I did a “24 hour” sailing race!Started off a bit rough, being completely new to sail racing, didn’t know where the starting line was (oops, go back around!) and then blew a fuse during the very first radio check. Erik fixed it on the fly getting all out electronics back, including the charger for the iPad containing all our charts. 5 boats total, we brought up the back of the pack through the whole day. Everyone else’s butts looked great sailing out over the horizon 😂This was one of the most fun challenging sailing days we’ve ever had! Heavy winds, to light winds through the narrows, back to heavy, gusty, and lumpy water. I rounded up once with a heavy gust I wasn’t prepared for during a gybe. More sail changes than I care to remember and we could have easily done more! (Can I have a furler for my bday pleeeease!)The leg from surprise reef, heading south out of Overton Arm was the best sailing we’ve ever done in the Chrysler. The gusts quit and we had a consistent wind while close hauling and watching the sunset and moon rise. Then in the space of an hour the wind died completely, then got gnarly, then died again 🤔 Lake Mead can be an asshole. Went from the genoa to heaving to with a storm sail and reefed main and then back to the genoa! Around the same time we heard that Ghost, the leader in the race had run aground and needed to be pulled off a sandbar. We hope the boat came away from that unscathed!

Around 1:30am, and still with the whole narrows in front of us and no wind, we turned on the motor and got moving home. Motor-sailed the whole way home and passed Boulder Island at about 5:05am.To everyone involved, thank you sooo much!! This was an amazing experience and it was so incredible to be a part of it. Clay and the Race Committee were there lending support the whole way. We learned a metric shit ton and can’t wait to put that new knowledge to use. Thank you again everyone!

Report from Rand & Sheree Wilson Little Rascal (Catalina 27)​This is quoted with permission from their facebook post in the NYC Group page.Little Rascal had a great time on the Ron Darling race, it was a tad bit grueling, but we finished at 3:40 a.m., exhausted! This was one of the tougher RD’s we’ve been on. The water was very choppy, the winds were high but not steady, and it felt like forever trying to get out of Echo Bay and into the Narrows on the way home.We had a good turnout, 5 boats, and great start ...first over the line, with Ghost right behind us and passing us before we got to the first buoy. Randdid an amazing job going through the Narrows at night, and for me the tacking was intense, but we made a lot of ground on Ghost who was ~1/2 hour ahead. We came out of the Narrows just behind ghost by seven minutes rounding the Callville buoy. Our only events on Little Rascal were losing our whisker pole overboard, doing a quick man overboard drill and saving the pole! (It was brand new) Less than a 3 minute event... I had a big gust at one point and rounded up losing my hat 🧢... (on that one it was blowing way too hard to even think about saving it, plus we were racing and it was a freebie). Once we finally made it into the Narrows Rand kicked ass and we jammed! Once through the Narrows, Ghost rounded the Callville buoy, we rounded just after and took a left turn, Ghost took the coastal route and ran aground on a sand bar... after just about two hours, Race Committee Clay Ostrom, was able to assist and pull them off of the sandbar. Yay!!!! Also, thank you to Steve on Winsornaut for checking in with his expert advice!

As it happens once we were able to get back in the race the wind had died! We got back in the race at 12:54 and finished at 3:40, delirious and begging for wind. This race is always an experience and usually our favorite, this year it was a little too grueling... special mentions... We were the only veteran RD sailors, the other four boats were sailors new to our lake, new to the club, and at least one was new to sailing! I am pretty sure 3 of the 4 boats are new to Lake Mead! To take on this race, and this year ESPECIALLY this one, hats off to all who attended! 19 hours & 83 miles on the water!

We were late to the start line, but soon overtook Little rascal reaching close to 8 knots on! Winds eased in Boulder Canyon and we shook out the reef and installed the 150. We sailed in Virgin Basin and a windline was clear! We quickly installed the 100 until the chop and gusts got uncomfortable so we reefed the Main again. Winds speeds averaged about 24 knots in Virgin Basin and Overton Arm with peak gusts about 35 knots. But it was consistently from the SE and SSE so we were either screeming along on a broad reach or close reach. In heading for the marker in Overton Arm we clocked over 10 knots hull speed as we were riding the waves and on a broad reach. ​

The track above is only the first two thirds of the course before the battery gave out. Our track was remarkably different from Family Tides' due to a veering of the wind!

The little "glitch" in the Temple Basin exit was due to having to deal with an headsail's baton caught on the upper forestay which required us to take it down, untwist it and hoist it back up again all in 30 knot gusts! We lost a checkstay early on, so had to keep a close eye on backstay tension and mast pumping. At sunset, around 1900hrs, winds near the entrance of The Narrows from Virgin Basin blackened and became very switchy (must have been that shift that helped Family Tides beam reach it out of the Arm!). Estimated 30 tacks through The Narrows and another 50+ tacks (under the light of the full moon) to get through Boulder Canyon to the other side (Boulder Basin). One gust took us almost clear around 360 degrees before changing back! It's an ominous experience seeing those glowing moonlit cliffs and trying to judge how close they are and decide whether to tack earlier than later just in case the wind decides to shift or die before you hit!

After clearing the last Callville mark at 2245hrs, still ahead of the rest of the fleet, we waited too long to tack and ran aground on a sandbar (N 36 09.079 W 114 33.003). This sandbar is not on the NOAA chart date 13th Ed, only RK (rock). In fact that land mass under the word Callville on the google satellite is 5 feet under the water surface on our chart! Whoops! Little Rascal's nav lights were visible exiting the Canyon, (how did they catch up to us so fast?!!) After unsuccessfully connecting via VHF with the Race Committee boat (Clay), LR stuck around and kept watch (check out her track below!). With audio help from ashore (Steve with Winsornaut) we attempted everything to get her free but she was dug in deep! Race Committee arrived on the scene around 1245hr. The solution in the end was a tether on Ghost's stern and a lot of juice from Committee!

When we were floating again, Clay escorted us to deeper waters and with our engines now running (no longer in the race) we motored home arriving in our slip, bruised both in body and spirit at around 0235hrs. It was both challenging physically and mentally, but would not have changed a thing in regards to wind force, direction and air temperature. Just perfect for such a unique, one-of-a-kind lake race which, when all is said and done, after tacks and zig zags, is closer to 100 miles than 77!

Report by Frank via text message - Yes, we did finished! it was a lot of fun and learned much. Lil' Bit was amazing. We did about eight sail changes, and She faced all the conditions like a champ. Skipper and crew are starting to get her figured out but there's a long way to go (especially with flying the shoot). We broached pretty hard a couple of times and broke the spin pole, we would have been better off not flying the shoot but I insisted. It was fun while it lasted. Also, we tore the main but got it repaired without much delay. Sorry no pictures, my phone died early on and crew didn't want to play photographer. We finished under sail at 0348hrs. We ran the motor briefly at the end of narrows to get away from the rocks when the wind stopped. We heard the radio comms as ghost was getting unstuck. Had nice light wind sail the entire Boulder basin to the finish. Lil' Bit kept us busy most of the time, especially the return through the Narrows. That was the most challenging part of the race. Thanks for a great event, especially thank you to Clay for watching over us and running the race.

Relative Wind - Catalina 27

Report via text from Skipper Keith with Crew Anthony - We tried to enter the Narrows at night four times but poor Dennis was so tired I had to trim the jib and main sail myself so we had to start the motor. We sailed again at the other side albeit at 0.9 Knots! We moored at the Marina at 0550hrs under the power of the jib as we had no power to start the engine.